Clothes washing machines



Sept. 8, 1959 G. c. FIELDS 2,902,852

. CLOTHES WASHING MACHINES I Original Filed July so, 1953 s Sheets-Sheet2 INVEN TOR. GZ'ORGE C. F/[Zflf ATTORNEY Sept. 8, 1959 2,902,852

G. C. FIELDS CLOTHES WASHING MACHINES Original Filed July so, 1953 aSheets-Sheet :5

llllilllllll w CLOTHES WASHING MACHINES George C. Fields, Wilmette,Ill., assignor to Philco Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporationof Pennsylvama Original application July 30, 1953, Serial No. 371,382,now Patent No. 2,871,689, dated February 8, 1959. Divided and thisapplication May 8, 1958, Serial No. 733,952

7 Claims. (Cl. 68-;131)

This invention relates to a clothes washing machine and particularly toa machine of the type wherein agitator means move orbitally about aninc-lined upright axis during a washing operation, by virtue of whichthe agitator means are caused to tilt or wobble; such wobbling agitatormeans being connected with a horizontal, surrounding portion of a basketby a flexible sealing member.

A machine of this type is disclosed in applicants copending applicationSerial No. 371,382, filed July 30, 1953, entitled Clothes WashingMachine, now Patent No. 2,871,689, dated February 3, 1959, and assignedto the assignee of the present invention; and certain aspects of themachine are claimed in said application, said aspects being concernedespecially with the feature that the agitator not only wobbles but isalso free to rotate, but only in one direction, relative to the basket.The present application is a division of said copending application andis concerned 'with other aspects, features and objects of the invention.

One of these objects is to provide a machine of the character indicatedwherein the agitator is capable of being positioned in desirably closerelation to the bottom of the basket.

A related object is to provide a machine of the character indicatedwherein the agitator, the flexible sealing member, and the bottom of thebasket are so correlated to each other as to minimize wear and tear ofthe clothes, while providing vigorous agitation.

A more specific object is to provide a machine of the characterindicated wherein said parts are so correlated as to preclude pinchingof clothing and resulting wear and tear as well as breakage of buttonsand the like by the flexible sealing member, incident to the verticaland orbital movement of the agitator and of the portions of the flexiblesealing member connected with the agitator.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a vertical sectional viewtaken substantially as indicated at line 11 in Figure 2, through aclothes washing machine embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially at line 2-2in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical sectional view of centralparts of the machine, the section being taken substantially as indicatedat line 3-3 in Figure 2, and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view of certain parts of the machine, partlyin section, the section being taken generally as indicated at line 44 inFigure 2.

Referring now to the drawing and primarily to Figure 1, the machinecomprises a cabinet containing a stationary tub which tub has a drainopening 22 connected with a pump 24. Also provided are suitable waterinlet means, not shown. Mounted within the upper portion of the tub is arotatable basket 30 for the washing and subsequent centrifuging ofclothes. The upper marates Patent Patented Sept. 8, 1959 ginal edge ofthis basket has apertures 32 through which washing liquid can bedischarged outwardly into tub 15.

Washing basket 30 is shown as having a bottom 38, a relatively largecentral portion of which is depressed as indicated at 39. Thisdepressed, central portion is connected by an annular upwardly extendingside wall 40 to the main portion of bottom 38. Basket 30, andparticularly depressed portion 39 of the bottom thereof, is secured toan upright tubular drive shaft 48 which extends downwardly through asuitable aperture in the bottom of stationary tub 15.

Extending upwardly and substantially concentrically within tubular driveshaft 48 is an agitator drive shaft 60, the upper end of which, as bestshown in Figure 3, extends through an opening 42 in depressed bottomportion 39 and carries thereabove a crank head 62 having an inclinedupper portion 63. The axis of this upper portion of the crank headextends at a slightly oblique angle to the axis of drive shaft 60.Iournalled within crank head 62 by bearings 64 is a stub shaft '65,upwardly projecting at the aforementioned angle and held against axialmovement by a clamping nut 66. Rigidly secured to stub shaft 65, as bywelding, is a transversely extending flange 70, to which is rigidlyattached an agitator mounting member 72 shown as a dome-like member ofmolded plastic material. The outer marginal edge of this mounting memberprovides an annular flange 74 extending in an inclined planesubstantially perpendicular to the axis of stub shaft 65.

In order to seal the drive mechanism from the washing fluid withinbasket 30 and also in order to add to the agitation imparted to theclothes, there is provided an annular, flexible sealing member 75outwardly extending from mounting member 72 and formed of suitablematerial such as rubber. The inner marginal edge of this flexible ringmember is rigidly attached to marginal flange 74 of the mounting memberby a clamping ring 77. The outer marginal portion of flexible sealingmember 75 is secured to upright wall portion 40, surrounding depressedarea 39 of bottom 38 of washing basket 30. For this purpose, theflexible sealing member is formed at its outer edge with a rib or bead79, engaged by correspondingly formed grooves in outer faces of clampingsegments which secure this edge to wall 40. Seal member 75 extends overand across fastening means 80 and covers the same, as shown.

Mounted on member 72 and on the upper portion of stub shaft 65 is anagitator head 85, shown as having a hub portion 87 and an outwardlyextending, marginally depending flange structure 89 which overhangs andcovers clamping ring 77. The agitator as illustrated also has a seriesof radial agitating vanes 94 (Figure 2). Agitator drive shaft 60 as wellas tubular shaft 48 is driven by a motor 140, through suitabletransmission means 125, 134 (Figure 1).

Seal member 75, as clearly shown in Figures 1 and 2, constitutes agenerally flat, annular member with a circular, outer edge portion 79secured to a horizontal, circular, outer seal mounting area defined byclamping ring 80 and the adjacent portions of wall 40 (Figure 3). Theinner edge of the seal member is attached to said flange 74- by ring 77,which defines an inclined, circular, inner seal mounting area and whichis surrounded by and radially spaced from said outer mounting area 80,40. Said outer mounting area has an upper edge, substantially vdefinedby the top of clamping ring 80, while said inner mounting area has anouter edge, substantially de fined by the periphery of flange 74; andthe body portion or unattached portion of seal member 75 forms a narrow,annular sheet member extending between said edges. As the top ofclamping ring 80 is horizontal, said edge of the outer mounting area isdisposed in a horizontal plane. By contrast, the edge of the innermounting area, being normal to the axis of inclined stub shaft 65, isinclined. More particularly this latter edge is so inclined that itpasses through said horizontal plane at two points of intersection,lying on line 4-4 in Figure 2. Still more particularly, twosymmetrically disposed portions of the edge of the inner mounting areaare separated one from the other by said points of intersection, saidportions being shown respectively at right and left of line 44 in Figure2.

By virtue of the construction illustrated and described, it is possibleto employ a flexible sealing member 75 which is at all times underpartial compression between the inner and outer seal mounting areas. Theparts of member 75 where such compression prevails are best shown inFigure 4. They are, as indicated in that figure, attached to portions ofthe inner seal mounting area 74, 77 which are at the approximateelevation of the principal plane of the outer seal mounting area. Bycontrast, at ninety degrees therefrom, in sectional plane 3-3 of Figure2, the vertical limits of movement of points of connection betweenagitator 85 and sealing member 75 are reached, and such limits come tolie above and below the adjacent parts of the outer seal mounting area,as shown in Figure 1. The compression C of some parts of the seal ateach moment (Figure 4) is caused by the fact that in the said parts, thedistance between inner and outer seal mounting areas is somewhat smallerthan the width of the seal itself. ing distance in the portions of saidmember shown in Figures 1 and 3 substantially equals said width.Incident to the wobbling of agitator 85, the compressed portions (Figure4) as well as the raised and lowered portions (Figures 1, 3) wander orprecess about the periphery of the agitator, in the direction ofrotation of the drive shaft (Figure 2).

The partial compression of the sealing member (Figure 4) can be keptsmall by virtue of the present invention, as the seal member can befairly wide and as the vertical motion of the inner seal mounting area,from lowermost or uppermost to central position, can be relatively small(Figures 1, 2). Thus it is possible in operation of the present machineto keep the sealing member in the approximate shape of a fiat ring, andthereby to avoid any possibility of pinching or squeezing of clothes bythe sealing member, in the process of agitation. Hence the possibilityof damage to the clothes or to buttons and other articles attached toclothing is substantially eliminated.

Further by virtue of this construction, wherein the sealing member neednot be under tension anywhere and at any time, the sealing member isfree to follow the movement of mounting member 72 without significantstress, thereby minimizing any tendency for the rubber ring 75 to crackor rupture.

As a still further result of this construction, the sealing memberimposes no restriction on the freedom of movement of agitator mountingmember 72 and stub shaft 65. This in turn means that the machinerequires only a minimum of power to be applied by motor 14-0 andtransmission 125, 134 to agitator shaft 60, in imparting the orbitalwobbling movement to the agitator, whereby substantial savings can berealized in the construction of said motor and transmission.

Thus it will be seen that the agitating operations of the new machineavoid several tendencies toward undesirable wear and tear, and thatneverthelms the agitation can be made very vigorous and efiicient, witha minimum of power. The agitation includes not only a hydrauliccirculation, indicated by the arrows in Figure 1, but also a verypositive pulsating, generally upward and downward displacement offabrics by the wobbling agitator and the concurrently rising and fallingportions of flexible sealing member 75.

By contrast, the correspond- In the machine illustrated, the saidagitating operations-normally applied in consecutive washing and rinsingcyclescan be followed by a spinning and extracting operation, whereintubular shaft 48 rapidly rotates basket 30. At such times the agitatorand the sealing member are at rest relative to the spinning basket. Thisextracting operation, as well as the preceding agitation, is improved bythe new construction and its mode of operation and particularly by theabsence of a clothes pinching or snagging efiect. As the basket beginsto spin, a desirably uniform distribution of articles of fabric aroundthe basket is promoted by this feature, and dangerous dynamic unbalanceand vibration are thus effectively minimized.

Although I have herein shown and described only a single preferredembodiment of my invention, manifestly such embodiment is capable ofmodification and re-arrangement of parts without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention. I do not therefore wish to beunderstood as limiting this invention except to such embodiments as aredefined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a laundering machine, a tub adapted to contain clothes to bewashed, the bottom of the tub having a relatively large depressed areasurrounded by an upwardly extending side wall, an opening in thedepressed area; agitator drive connections extending upwardly throughsaid opening and comprising an upright rotatable shaft and a crank headmounted on the upper end of the shaft; an agitator mounting memberconnected to said crank head and disposed in a plane at an acute angleto horizontal, with a portion of its periphery at all times extendingdown into the depressed portion of the tub bottom; an agitator mountedon said mounting member; whereby rotation of said upright shaft impartsan orbital wobbling movement to said mounting member and agi tator; andan annular flexible sealing member connected at its inner marginal edgein sealing engagement with the entire marginal edge of said mountingmember and its outer marginal edge being connected to the bottom of saidtub.

2. in a laundering machine, a tub adapted to contain clothes to bewashed, the bottom of the tub having a relatively large depressed areasurrounded by an upwardly extending side wall, an opening in thedepressed area; agitator drive connections extending upwardly throughsaid opening and comprising an upright rotatable shaft and a crank headmounted on the upper end of the shaft; an agitator mounting memberconnected to said crank head and disposed in a plane at an acute angleto horizontal, with a portion of its periphery at all times extendingdown into the depressed portion of the tub bottom; an agitator mountedon said mounting member; whereby rotation of said upright shaft impartsan orbital wobbling movement to said mounting member and agitator; andan annular flexible sealing member connected at its inner marginal edgein sealing engagement with the entire marginal edge of said mountingmember and its outer marginal edge being connected to the upwardlyextending side wall surrounding the depressed area of the bottom of thetub.

3. in a laundering machine, a tub adapted to contain clothes to bewashed, the bottom of the tub having a relatively large depressed areasurrounded by an upwardly extending side wall, an opening in thedepressed area; agitator drive connections extending upwardly throughsaid opening and comprising an upright rotatable shaft and a crank headmounted on the upper end of the shaft; an agitator mounting memberconnected to said crank head and disposed in a plane at an acute angleto horizontal, with a portion of its periphery at all times extendingdown into the depressed portion of the tub bottom; an agitator mountedon said mounting member; whereby rotation of said upright shaft impartsan orbital wobbling movement to said mounting member and agitator; andan annular flexible sealing member connected at its inner marginal edgein sealing engagement with the entire marginal edge of said mountingmember and its outer marginal edge being connected to the bottom of saidtub, said mounting member being mounted at a height and in a relation tosaid tub bottom, such that the vertical limits of movement of any pointof connection with the sealing member lie below and above respectivelythat portion of the tub bottom surrounding said depressed area.

4. In a laundering machine, a tub adapted to contain clothes to bewashed, the bottom of the tub having a relatively large depressed areasurrounded by an upwardly extending side wall, an opening in thedepressed area; agitator drive connections extending upwardly throughsaid opening and comprising an upright rotatable shaft and a crank headmounted on the upper end of the shaft; an agitator mounting memberconnected to said crank head and disposed in a plane at an acute angleto horizontal, with a portion of its periphery at all times extendingdown into the depressed portion of the tub bottom; an agitator mountedon said mounting member; whereby rotation of said upright shaft impartsan orbital wobbling movement to said mounting member and agitator; andan annular flexible sealing member connected at its inner marginal edgein sealing engagement with the entire marginal edge of said mountingmember and its outer marginal edge being connected to the bottom of saidtub, said mounting member being mounted at a height and in a relation tosaid tub bottom, such that the vertical limits of movement of any pointof connection with the sealing member lie below and above respectivelythat portion of the tub bottom surrounding said depressed area, thetransverse dimension of said sealing member being such that it remainsuntensioned at all times irrespective of the vertical position of anypoint of connection to said mounting member with relation to any pointof connection to said tub.

5. In a laundering machine, a tub adapted to contain clothes to bewashed, the bottom of the tub having a relatively large depressed areasurrounded by an upwardly extending side wall, an opening in thedepressed area; agitator drive connections extending upwardly throughsaid opening and comprising an upright rotatable shaft and a crank headmounted on the upper end of the shaft; an agitator mounting memberconnected to said crank head and disposed in a plane at an acute angleto horizontal, with a portion of its periphery at all times extendingdown into the depressed portion of the tub bottom; an agitator mountedon said mounting member; whereby rotation of said upright shaft impartsan orbital wobbling movement to said mounting member and agitator; anannular flexible sealing member; fastening means connecting the innermarginal edge of the flexible member in sealing relation to the entiremarginal edge of said mounting member; said agitator having a dependingskirt terminating in close relation to said mounting member andenclosing said fastening means; and second fastening means connectingthe outer marginal edge of the flexible member to said side wallsurrounding the depressed area of the tub bottom with said flexiblemember positioned to extend over and enclose said second fasteningmeans.

6. In a laundry machine: a basket having apertured bottom structure andhaving side wall structure surrounding the same, one of said structuresproviding an annular, outer seal mounting area coaxial with the apertureof said bottom structure, said area having an edge generally disposed ina horizontal plane; an upright, rotatable agitator drive shaft extendingthrough said aperature; support means carried by said drive shaft insaid basket and defining an axis inclined to the vertical; an agitatorbody mounted on said support means, for rotation relative thereto aboutsaid axis, said agitator body providing an annular, inner seal mountingarea which has an edge generally disposed in a plane normal to saidinclined axis, said latter edge being generally concentric with saidsupport means and being spaced inwardly from said outer seal mountingarea and closely above the bottom structure in such manner that saidlatter edge passes through said horizontal plane, at two points ofintersection; and an annular, flexible sealing member, having outer andinner rims secured respectively to the outer and inner seal mountingareas, and having a body forming a narrow sheet therebetween, saidnarrow sheet extending from one to the other of said edges along lineswhich approximately directly interconnect said edges at pointsperipherally spaced from said points of intersection, and along slightlycurved lines adjacent the points of intersection.

7. A laundry machine as described in claim 6 wherein said edge of theinner seal mounting area, provided by the agitator body, is so spacedabove the bottom structure that said points of intersection dividesymmetrical portions of said latter edge, one from the other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSJohnson May 29, 1951

